A group of township residents has been pushing supervisors to adopt a community bill of rights ordinance that would protect
against spreading sludge, said Sue DeGenaro, organizer of UMBT United Against Sludge
Dumping.

The group has been advocating for the community bill of
rights since November when former Northampton County councilman and township resident
Ron Angle applied to spread biosolids, or sludge, on a few farming
properties.

"They are going to come in and explain it well and how it can
be defended," DeGenaro said.

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund is a public interest law firm that helps protects
citizens' rights, according to Chad Nicholson, the group's organizer for Pennsylvania. The defense fund often uses a community bill of rights to
help citizens and municipalities protect the rights to clean air and water and land
uses.

Township residents contacted the defense fund to help them prevent sludge spreading and the organization
drafted an ordinance that addressed it, Nicholson said. He acknowledged that the issue has put township supervisors in a difficult spot.

Local officials are tasked with upholding state and federal laws as well as protecting the welfare of their residents, Nicholson said.

"But the state laws have
removed those abilities from them," he said.

The most a township solicitor can recommend is to uphold
those state laws, Nicholson said. The defense fund challenges those state laws, he said.

"That's what the ordinance does: It challenges the law and
creates a new conversation," he said.

Nicholson said different municipalities have passed similar ordinances over the past eight years and some were challenged in court. Angle has said he would fight the bill of rights.

Colleen Connolly, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of
Environmental Protection, said there are about seven farms in Northampton
County currently licensed to spread sludge.

John Gorman, another township resident pushing for the
ordinance, said adopting the community bill of rights is the only option the
township has in protecting from sludge spreading, even though he knows it can
be challenged by the state attorney general.

"We need as many people as possible to support it," Gorman
said. "(Sludge spreading) is going to drive many families from their homes,
just for profit. I'm moving my family from here if it's spread."